Right. Picking up where we left off, another welcome visitor from
Jonathan's magic bag of tricks was the
Sony SA5000, a headphone that doesn't seem much discussed here on Head-Fi. First off, I was quite impressed with the build quality; these really look and feel the money! Next, they were super-comfortable, with even weight distribution and an excellent feeling of balance and precision. Finally, they sounded very nice, with a soundstage that was quite generous. But I still wouldn't give up my PROlines for them.
Next were Jonathan's
Grado GS-1000 & RS-1. For whatever reason, the GS-1000, while comfortable, kinda felt bizarre to me, as if I were being tickled wherever those large foam cups were touching my head. But it sounded really sweet out of my CanAmp!
And to my surprise, the RS-1 sounded better still, (but perhaps I was a bit distracted by that GS-1000 "tickle"), and they felt to me like they should, solid & substantial.
Good as they were, neither managed to eradicate the wonderful, beguiling impression I had earlier of Pete's Alessandros. I think for the money those two Grados cost, I'd hope for just a bit more.
Jonathan's
Blue-Dragon cabled HD650 was impressive too, sounding consistently good through every amp I tried them with, including the CanAmp, Woo 3, Corda Headfive, and WNA Mk1. No wonder it's such a benchmark in the headphone industry. Still, it lacks the "WOW"-factor I've become addicted to in my PROline 2500s (but which are far more amp-fussy).
Finally, IMHO, my
Heed Audio CanAmp was a real star at this meet. We tried pretty much everything we could with it (except for Matt's, which I didn't manage to sample before he left, and, of course, Stew's K-1000). This amp simply takes no prisoners, and every headphone sounded all the better for it, from the high-impedance, voltage-grabbing HD650s on to the low-impedance, current-sucking Ultrasones. The CanAmp never blinked once, maintaining an air of total assurance.
So that about covers it. Once again, my thanks to everyone involved, and I hope we can do it again, same time next year!
